Allianz is big on boca

Life insurance firm renews sponsorship of PGA Champions Tour event for 3 years

September 20, 2008|By Sarah Talalay Staff Writer

Allianz Life Insurance Co. of North America has agreed to renew its title sponsorship of the PGA's Champions Tour event in Boca Raton after its current three-year deal expires in February, company officials said Friday.

The three-year extension means the tournament will be named the Allianz Championship through 2012. Financial terms of the deal, which is to be formally announced next week, were not disclosed.

A study this year by Lynn University in Boca Raton said the tournament, played at Broken Sound's Old Course, has a $5.5 million to $7 million direct economic impact.

"It's a fantastic opportunity in terms of branding," said Gary C. Bhojwani, the Minneapolis company's president and chief executive officer.

The contract was signed in the wake of a controversy regarding Allianz's activities during World War II.

Last week, stadium naming rights talks between the company's Munich-based parent, Allianz SE, and the NFL's New York Giants and Jets collapsed over objections from Jewish groups. The teams were negotiating a deal said to be worth $20 million to $30 million a year to name their new stadium in New Jersey. But talks ended when accounts resurfaced that Allianz had insured Nazi concentration camps and failed to pay the life insurance claims of camp survivors.

The golf tournament has been named for Allianz for the past two years with no apparent controversy.

"From the tour's perspective, it was never an issue," said Miller Brady, Champions Tour director of business affairs.

Allianz has been a golf sponsor for 17 years, and the tournament title sponsor in Des Moines, Iowa, from 2001 until the event moved to Boca Raton in 2007.

Hollis Cavner, president and chief executive officer of ProLink Sports, which manages the tournament, praised the firm's sponsorship and willingness to renew.

The company said it has been recognized, including by the North American Board of Rabbis, for making amends for its history.

"Whether it's Allianz Life or the parent company, I think we all acknowledge that no amount of money or words or deeds or reparation is going to be enough to offset what happened during that period," Bhojwani said.